A protestant refugee who fled from Normandy to Amsterdam after the Edict of Nantes with other Huguenots about 1680 and lived in the "Bethaniensteeg" district. Met Jeanne de la Batte who had also left France and they married in Amsterdam in 1685. Their first son David born and died early 1686. Their second son Jean (Jan) was born in 1687 and in 1689 the three of them sailed to the Cape of Good Hope. Their daughter Jeanne was born at sea during the trip over. They arrived in the Cape in 1690 and were given land in Blaauklip and money by the Dutch East India Company to start up or work on the vineyards in the Cape.

Research Notes

Lee Cahill, 29 November 2012:

Guillaume Neél (later Willem Nel) was born in Rouen, France in 1662 and was baptised the following year.

As a young adult, he fled from religious persecution in France, which occurred after the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edict_of_Nantes). He went to Amsterdam, where he lived in what is today the Red Light District and worked as a tailor.

He met is wife, Jeanne de la Batte, in Amsterdam and married there on 3 May 1685.

At this time the VOC (Dutch East India Company) was offering safe passage to the Cape of Good Hope for Huguenots who wanted the chance to start a new life there.

On 19 February 1688, he, his wife and two young children left for the Cape of Good Hope on board the ship De Schelde. They arrived in Table Bay on 5 June 1688.

On 9 November 1690, Willem, as he was known by then, purchased the farm Blaauwklip in the area of Moddergat in the District of Stellenbosch from Gerrit Jansz Visser.

In 1711, he purchased the farm Bootmans Drift in Drakenstein.

He died at the Cape of Good Hope on 17 June 1735.

The details about this ancestor and his family that appear on my tree are constructed from various MyHeritage family trees.

He arrived in the Cape with his wife and two children, probably on the ship De Schelde, in 1688.

His trade is given as 'kleremaker' (tailor).

He settled on the farm Blaauklippen near Stellenbosch.

On 17 August 1714, he purchased the farm Bootmansdrift in Drakenstein, using money loaned from the VOC (note that this information differs from information obtained from other sources).

He had seven sons and four daughters. One child was deceased in the Netherlands.

He died in 1734.

A comment about this ancestor in research conducted by the Huguenot Monument genealogists is given in Afrikaans as follows: "Hy was baie arm en het werkies vir Adam Tas gedoen vir extra inkomste" (He was very poor and did small jobs for Adam Tas to earn some extra income).

Guillaume signed his Last Will and Testament on 26/1/1734 at his house in Cape Town. As he was already very weak he signed with a 'X' despite the fact that he could write. His exact date of death is on my research list as 17/6/1735.

As far as Guillaume's financial status is concerned, he may have started off poor but, being a hard worker, he acquired two farms and became a prosperous land owner. After he sold Blaaukippen to his son-in-law, he bought a house in Cape Town where he probably lived until his death.

His tax returns also indicate financial growth.

Research points to the fact that he and Adam Tas were good friends and that he often did jobs for Tas.

Guillaume was granted Bootmansdrift (Wellington) 17/9/1714. He sold the farm to A.van Jaarsveld in 1721 for 2000 guilden. In 1722 he bought a house from Dirk Bulthus. The address was Property number MM8 Table Valley (Cape Town). This is where he signed his will on 26/1/1734.

Nel/Nell Family History

According to notes about the Nell family on Genealogy.com, which cite the Amsterdam County Office (Gemmentenarchief) as the source, the family is descended from Guillaume Nie'l, a Huguenot refugee who fled from Normandy to Amsterdam in the late 1860's. He settled in Bethaniensteeg (which is today in the Red Light District) and worked as a tailor. There he met Jeanne de la Batte of Toulouse, who was also a refugee. They married in Amsterdam and had two children there. Due to the influence of the Dutch language, their surname soon became contracted to Nel. The family emigrated to the Cape of Good Hope in the spring of 1869 aboard the VOC vessel, de Berg China. Guillaume and Jeanne received 80 rijksdaalers (guilders) from the Dutch East India Company to settle at the Cape, and started a farm in Groot Drakenstein, where they had eight more children.

According to the same notes, while studying in the UK during the 1950's, one Marius Louis Nel commissioned a study of the Nell/Nel family history. While there is no documentation to support this, apparently the Nel family can be traced back to Ireland in around 1100. The Irish branch of the family was known by the surname of O'Niell, and they lived in Tara. The family fled unrest in about 1300. Some of them fled to France, where they dropped the 'O' from O'Niell. Later they apparently dropped the second 'l' too and the surname was contracted into Niel.

Guillaume Neél's name appears on the passenger list for the Huguenot Ship De Schelde, which sailed from Amsterdam to South Africa 1688. De Schelde left for the Cape on 19 February 1688 The 140-long ship arrived in Table Bay on 5 June 1688. No deaths nor any sickness on board, but the ship did put in at St. Jago for repairs on 22-30 June 1688 (see http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/sahug07.shtml).